Go Gwyneth

She’s a movie star (in this month’s crime caper Mortdecai), entrepreneur (behind the lifestyle phenomenon Goop), and champion of women (despite what you may have heard). Why should Gwyneth Paltrow have to defend her success? As writer Nell Scovell discovers: She shouldn’t.

On her costars over the years: “Whether it’s Morgan Freeman [1995’s Se7en] at the beginning of my career or Johnny Depp in my last movie [this month’s Mortdecai], I feel on-my-knees gratitude for being considered a good enough actor to work with actors of that caliber.”

On her breakup with Chris Martin: “There was nothing dramatic or anything. I had built my life on trying to be all things to all people, and I just couldn’t do it anymore, and I really had the sense that I wasn’t allowed to have needs, and I had to prove my specialness or self-worth by doing all this stuff and taking care of everybody else, and I just sort of hit a wall.”

On her current relationship with Martin: “We’ve worked really fucking hard to get to [this] point. But we’re very, very close, and it’s so nice. I feel like it’s, in a way, the relationship we were meant to have.”

On entrepreneurship: “I know what I want to do, and I’m going to do it. I don’t care so much about the men, but I wish that women were slightly more understanding of other women. A lot of women reporters try to pit me against other women doing entrepreneurial things. There’s room for everybody.”

On young adulthood: “The day I left my parents’ house, my dad was like ‘You are totally on your own. Don’t ask me for help with rent, don’t ask me for help with anything. Your privilege was to live in my house and to get the education that we were able to afford for you.’ My father loved his success, but he was hyperaware of the entitlement that can be created if you grow up as a rich kid, and so he was very clever at letting us know that we were borrowing it.”

On raising children: “I think we are all genuinely doing our best, it’s hard to have children and a career, and all some women seem to do is judge other women’s choices. I find that demoralizing and unhelpful. Where is the wisdom coming out of this situation? I don’t see where this is getting us anywhere in terms of a cultural discussion.”

Read the full interview and see all the photos in the March issue of Marie Claire Malaysia.